China's courts successfully serve and protect innovation-driven development

China's procuratorates and courts have actively leveraged their functions to safeguard and serve innovation-driven development, as stated in the annual work reports of China's top procuratorate and the top court.

The procurator-general of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, Ying Yong, and the president of the Supreme People's Court, Zhang Jun, delivered the work reports on Friday and submitted them to the ongoing second session of the 14th National People's Congress, the country's top legislature for deliberation.

In 2023, prosecutions for crimes such as infringement of trademark rights, patent rights, copyright and trade secrets totaled at affecting 18,000 people, marking a 40.8 percent year-on-year increase. Efforts have been made to strengthen the protection of trade secrets in litigation proceedings to prevent "secondary leakage", according to the SPP.

The supervision of civil and administrative litigation cases involving intellectual property reached 2,508 cases, a 270 percent increase compared to 2022. Additionally, the procuratorates also handled 873 IPR public interest litigation cases, along with the launch of special supervision on malicious litigation involving IPR.

Last year, the SPP also introduced 45 measures for procuratorial organs to handle intellectual property cases to strengthen the comprehensive protection of IPR.

In terms of the trial of IPR, the people's courts nationwide concluded 490,000 IPR cases last year, representing a 1.8 percent increase compared to the previous year, according to the Supreme People's Court work report.

Furthermore, punitive damages were applied in 319 cases, marking a 117 percent year-on-year increase, with the awarded amount reaching 1.16 billion yuan ($161.2 million), a 350 percent increase compared to 2022.